Modesitt, L. E., Jr. The Parafaith War. 1996. Parafaith No. 1. Tor, 2010.
I usually enjoy L. E. Modesitt’s novels, but The Parafaith War is a near miss. Modesitt’s Tangible Ghosts series is an original alternate history with some inventive technology. The Imager fantasy series has characters we can care about and some careful world-building. The Parafaith War has some laudable goals. It wants to be a novel of ideas set in a space opera universe. It features an endless interstellar war between a religious autocracy and a secular society that uses implant technology to make efficient warriors. On the sidelines, is a society of humanoid aliens with a philosophical bent, who offer plenty of natural occasions for characters to have serious conversations. Such conversations happen, but there are too many long chapter epigraphs that I wish were incorporated in the conversations. Some of the issues are indeed intriguing: do all sentient species have an imperative to protect themselves by wiping out competing species; do some body modifications make us less human; and do all species tell lies about themselves? Unfortunately, Modesitt also feels compelled to include some military action scenes to set the stage for all the philosophizing, and his heart is just not in them. Most annoying is the use of corny sound effects words like ping and crump to describe the sound of artillery and ricochets. Finally, our hero drinks enough tea with some kind of upper—maybe just caffein—that we wonder if Modesitt has stock in Celestial Seasonings or Twinings. 3.5 stars for ambition. ( )

A thought-provoking read that I've enjoyed a couple of times now: http://allbookedup-elena.blogspot.com/2011/06/parafaith-war-le-modesitt.html ( )

There are two civilizations space faring civilizations of man; a theocracy with a population problem & a technocratic society with a resource problem. They have limited contact, generally through attacks of the theocracy to take over planets which the technocrats have mostly terraformed. Told from the point of view of a soldier of the technocrats, a cyborg, we see a small portion of the war & the moral decisions he faces. There is an alien race to highlight the moral dilemma.Well done & a pretty quick read. Typical Modesitt character & setting. The technocratic society is very 'green'. It's not great literature, but entertaining & interesting. While there is a lot of technology, he doesn't get bogged down in details & leaves a lot to the reader's imagination. ( )